Brian Leonard Pearce (8 May 1915 – 25 November 2008) was a British
Marxist political activist, historian, and translator. Adept and prolific in Russian-to-English translation, Pearce was regarded at the time of his death as "one of the most acute scholars of Russian history and British communism never to have held an academic post."
Early years
Pearce was born in
Weymouth, Dorset
Weymouth is a seaside town in Dorset, on the English Channel coast of England. Situated on a sheltered bay at the mouth of the River Wey, south of the county town of Dorchester, Weymouth had a population of 53,427 in 2021. It is the third ...
on 9 May 1915. His father was an upwardly mobile engineer, his mother a domestic servant of Irish extraction. Brian was their only child, a shy and precocious boy, poor at athletics and not popular among his peers. His father's growing prosperity allowed Brian the freedom to travel. In 1931 he went to Germany and in 1933 to France, where he further developed the language skills he had learned in school.
[Brotherstone, "In Memoriam: Brian Pearce," pg. 82.]
Although his parents were
Tories
A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. The ...
, Brian's father investigated a few early issues of the
Communist Party of Great Britain's organ, ''The Daily Worker,'' which Brian read thoroughly. He was also greatly influenced by an uncle who worked as a railwayman and was a partisan of the socialist
Independent Labour Party
The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a British political party of the left, established in 1893 at a conference in Bradford, after local and national dissatisfaction with the Liberals' apparent reluctance to endorse working-class candidates ...
.
Brian also read various books and pamphlets he purchased on his own from a radical bookseller on Charing Cross Road.
Brian briefly worked for a company that produced trade journals before going away to
University College London
, mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £143 million (2020)
, budget = ...
in 1934. While a history student there, he joined the Communist Party.
Pearce had been expected to get a first in History and win a scholarship to further pursue his research in the
Tudor period
The Tudor period occurred between 1485 and 1603 in England and Wales and includes the Elizabethan period during the reign of Elizabeth I until 1603. The Tudor period coincides with the dynasty of the House of Tudor in England that began wit ...
, en route to a career in academia, but instead received an upper second on his last exam. His only choice if he was to proceed onto a PhD programme would be to work under the close direction of a supervisor on a topic not of his own choosing. He laboured at that unpleasant task for two years before discovering that another person was almost finished ploughing the same research ground, making award of a PhD unlikely.
[Brotherstone, "In Memoriam: Brian Pearce," pg. 84.] Pearce henceforth chose a different path.
Career
Pearce married for the first time in 1939 to a party comrade, Lilla Fox. The pair had three children before separating in the late 1940s.
Pearce was drafted into the military early in 1940 and stationed in the north of England.
His wartime experiences were uneventful.
After being demobilised, Pearce went to work in the civil service, where he learned Russian.
[Brotherstone, "In Memoriam: Brian Pearce," pg. 85.] He subsequently left the civil service to work in various Communist Party-related capacities, including as a member of the staff of ''The Daily Worker,'' for the Anglo-Soviet Friendship Society, and as a teacher of English at various East European embassies in London.
In 1953, Pearce joined a delegation of the
British-Soviet Friendship Society and travelled to the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
.
He was also a member of the
Communist Party Historians Group
A subdivision of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB), the Communist Party Historians Group (CPHG) formed a highly influential cluster of British Marxist historians, who contributed to " history from below" from 1946 to 1956. Famous member ...
, which conducted serious historical research into various questions of the British labour movement.
Pearce's world was rocked by the so-called
Secret Speech
"On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences" (russian: «О культе личности и его последствиях», «''O kul'te lichnosti i yego posledstviyakh''»), popularly known as the "Secret Speech" (russian: секре ...
delivered by Soviet leader
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and chairman of the country's Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. During his rule, Khrushchev s ...
in 1956.
The revelations about the violent and criminal behaviour of
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...
's regime divided the CPGB between those who favoured becoming truly independent and thoroughly democratised and others who disregarded Khrushchev's revelations as hysterical and overblown and having no real relation to the situation facing the Communist Party in the UK.
Pearce began contributing to an opposition journal, ''The Reasoner,'' which was terminated just as the
Soviet invasion of Hungary
The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 10 November 1956; hu, 1956-os forradalom), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was a countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the Hunga ...
took place. This event created an even wider fissure in the British Communist Party, ending in September 1957 with Pearce's expulsion from the CPGB.
After being expelled from the Communist Party, Pearce turned to
Trotskyism
Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a ...
as a member of the
Socialist Labour League
The Workers Revolutionary Party is a Trotskyist group in Britain once led by Gerry Healy. In the mid-1980s, it split into several smaller groups, one of which retains possession of the name.
The Club
The WRP grew out of the faction Gerry Healy ...
, a membership he retained for many years.
Pearce became a professional translator to make ends meet. He was skilled at his craft, combining accuracy with a highly readable style, and was a three-time winner of the
Scott Moncrieff Prize
The Scott Moncrieff Prize, named after the translator C. K. Scott Moncrieff, is an annual £2,000 literary prize for French to English translation, awarded to one or more translators every year for a full-length work deemed by the Translators Asso ...
for his work.
Death and legacy
Pearce died on 25 November 2008. He was 93 years old.
At the time of his death, he was described as "one of the most acute scholars of Russian history and British communism never to have held an academic post." His papers are in the process of being catalogued at Aberdeen University, which will hold the Brian Pearce Archive.
Footnotes
Selected works
Writings
* ''Early History of the Communist Party of Great Britain.'' (London: Socialist Labour League, 1966).
* ''Essays on the History of Communism in Britain.'' With Michael Woodhouse. (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1975).
* ''How Haig Saved Lenin.'' (London: Macmillan, 1987).
* ''The Staroselsky Problem, 1918–20: An Episode in British-Russian Relations in Persia.'' (London: University of London, 1994).
* 'The Brian Pearce Dossier', ''Revolutionary History,'' vol. 9, no. 3 (2006), pp. 105–143.
—Selection of Pearce's correspondence.
Translations (partial list)
*
E. Preobrazhensky, ''The New Economics.'' (London: Oxford University Press, 1965).
* Leon Trotsky, ''The Intelligentsia and Socialism.'' (London: Fourth International, 1966).
* Nikolai Valentinov, ''Encounters with Lenin.'' With Paul Rosta. (London: Oxford University Press, 1968).
*
A. D. Lublinskaya, ''French Absolutism: The Crucial Phase, 1620–1629'', (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1968).
* Ernest Mandel, ''Marxist Economic Theory.'' In two volumes. (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1970).
* Ernest Mandel, ''The Formation of the Economic Thought of Karl Marx: 1843 to Capital''. (London: New Left Books, 1971).
* E.A. Preobrazhensky, ''From NEP to Socialism: A Glance into the Future of Russia and Europe''. (London: New Park Publications, 1973).
* Samir Amin, ''Accumulation on a world scale'' (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1974).
* Maxime Rodinson, ''Islam and Capitalism'' (London: Allen Lane, 1974, and Penguin, 1977)
* Marcel Liebman, ''Leninism Under Lenin.'' (London: Jonathan Cape, 1975).
* Fernando Claudín, ''The Communist Movement from Comintern to Cominform.'' In two volumes. (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1975).
* Leon Trotsky, ''Tasks Before the Twelfth Congress of the Russian Communist Party.'' (London: New Park Publications, 1975).
* Samir Amin, ''Unequal Development'', (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1976).
* Charles Bettelheim, ''Class Struggles in the USSR.'' Volumes 1 and 2. (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1976–78).
* Carmen Claudín-Urondo, ''Lenin and the Cultural Revolution''. (Sussex: Harvester Press, 1977).
*
Communist International
The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to "struggle by ...
, ''Baku: Congress of the Peoples of the East''. (London: New Park Publications, 1977).
*
Roland Mousnier
Roland Émile Mousnier (; Paris, September 7, 1907– February 8, 1993, Paris) was a French historian of the early modern period in France and of the comparative studies of different civilizations.
Life
Mousnier was born in Paris and receiv ...
, ''The Institutions of France under the Absolute Monarchy, 1598–1789''. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979).
*
Leon Trotsky
Lev Davidovich Bronstein. ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky; uk, link= no, Лев Давидович Троцький; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trotskij'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky''. (), was a Russian ...
, ''How the Revolution Armed.'' In five volumes. (London: New Park Publications, 1979–1982).
* Leon Trotsky, ''The War Correspondence of Leon Trotsky: The Balkan Wars, 1912–13''. (New York: Monad Press, 1980).
*
F.F. Raskolnikov, ''Kronstadt and Petrograd in 1917''. (London: New Park Publications, 1982).
* Maxime Rodinson, ''Israel and the Arabs'' (Penguin, 1982).
* Roy Medvedev, ''Khrushchev.'' (New York: Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1983).
* Boris Kagarlitsky, ''The Thinking Reed: Intellectuals and the Soviet State from 1917 to the Present.'' (London: Verso, 1988).
* Paul Veyne, ''Bread and Circuses.'' (London: Allen Lane, 1990).
* Marc Ferro, ''Nicholas II: The Last of the Tsars.'' (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993).
*
Louis Châtellier, ''The Religion of the poor: rural missions in Europe and the formation of modern catholicism, c. 1500-1800''. (Cambridge: University Press, 1997).
* Daniel Roche, ''A History of Everyday Things: The Birth of Consumption in France, 1600–1800'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000)
* Sergo Beria, ''Beria, My Father: Inside Stalin's Kremlin.'' (London: Gerald Duckworth and Co., 2001).
Further reading
* Terry Brotherstone
"Obituary: Brian Pearce: Translator and Scholar of Communist History,"''The Guardian,'' 10 December 2008.
Brian Pearce: Historian of the rank and fileby
Ian Birchall
Ian Birchall (born 1939) is a British Marxist historian and translator, a former member of the Socialist Workers Party and author of numerous articles and books, particularly relating to the French Left. Formerly Senior Lecturer in French at Mid ...
* Terry Brotherstone, "In Memoriam: Brian Pearce (8 May 1915 – 25 November 2008): Personal and Political Reflections," ''Revolutionary Russia'', v. 22, no. 1 (June 2009).
* Terry Brotherstone, 'History, Truth, Context and Meaning: Two Memories of the 1956–57 Crisis in the Communist Party of Great Britain' in
Keith Flett
Keith Flett (born 31 October 1956) is a British socialist historian and a prolific letter writer in the British press.
Activities
Letters from "Keith Flett, London N17" are regularly published in the press, literary and political journals, advan ...
(ed.), ''1956 and All That.'' Cambridge Scholars Press, 2007.
* Bob Goul
'Introduction'to Brian Pearce on 'The British Communist Party and the Labour Left 1925–1929' (1957 article).
* Christian Hogsbjerg, 'Obituary', ''
History Workshop Journal
The ''History Workshop Journal'' is a British academic history journal published by Oxford University Press. ''History Workshop'' was founded in 1976 by Raphael Samuel and others involved in the History Workshop movement. Originally sub-titled "A ...
'', 69, (Spring 2010).
* John McIlroy, 'A Communist Historian in 1956: Brian Pearce and the Crisis of British Stalinism', ''
Revolutionary History,'' vol. 9., no. 3 (2006), pp. 84–104.
Brian Pearceon Simon Pirani's 'The Russian Revolution in Retreat 1920–1924: the Soviet workers and the new Communist elite' (2008)
* J.J.Plant, 'Obituary', ''Revolutionary History'', Vol.10 No.1
Taline Ter Minassian, ''Reginald Teague-Jones'' (Grasset, Paris, 2012) a work by a professor of Russian history at the INALCO (Institut national des langues et civilsations orientales) in France, about
Reginald Teague-Jones
Reginald Teague-Jones MBE (30 July 1889 – 16 November 1988) was a British political and intelligence officer. He was active in the Caucasus and Central Asia during the Russian Civil War. For the last 66 years of his life he was known as Ronald ...
, a British government agent in central Asia, which is dedicated to Brian Pearce for his help with the research.
External links
'Brian Pearce Internet Archive' Marxists Internet Archive, www.marxists.org/
—Extensive collection of Pearce's work.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pearce, Brian
1915 births
2008 deaths
People from Weymouth, Dorset
Alumni of University College London
British Army personnel of World War II
British Trotskyists
British people of Irish descent
Communist Party of Great Britain members
French–English translators
Historians of communism
Communist Party Historians Group members
Russian–English translators
Workers Revolutionary Party (UK) members
20th-century translators